We Have Each Others' Backs
by StellaHunterOfArtemis
Summary: One-Shot/ When Uma is confronted by someone for her faults, the last person she expected came to her rescue. But while people may hate each other, that doesn't mean that they don't have their backs.


_It's 2 am, and I have an exam tomorrow, but here I am, making excellent decisions (cue thumbs up)._

 _Hey guys! So, apologies for not updating any of my stories in forever, even though I promised to, but being a 12th grader about to give her boards is very stressful and I am drowning under the pressure already. I'm really very sorry, but I don't see me updating my stories until I'm done with everything, which is mid-March. Updates to my current story will probably happen in early April, and I have a lot of ideas to execute. Please bear with me for the next few months, and I promise, I will not disappoint you._

 _So, I wanted to maybe use Melody in this one, because of obvious reasons, but having never seen the movie, I didn't know about Melody enough to write her. Anyway, this is set sometime after Descendants 2, and Uma isn't planning anything evil. Enjoy this story and I'll see you soon!_

Uma sighed as she took in the sights around her. The last time she'd been in Auradon, she had been a little to busy fighting Mal to appreciate the differences between home ( _the Isle, not home_ ) and the land across the sea. She never thought that she would be allowed here, not unless she broke out again, but the King had rather surprised her.

 _I know that you made mistakes, but I also know how to give second chances. You made a bad choice, but you did return back here rather than cause mayhem around Auradon. You can come back, but I can't say that you won't be under more scrutiny than your fellow VKs._

"Captain, you coming?" Harry asked her, getting out of the car. With a jolt, Uma realised that they had reached Auradon Prep while she was lost in her thoughts. Gil had already exited the car, and was jumping all around, making Ben slightly uncomfortable with his proximity.

 _Clearly, Ben wasn't as selfless as he pretended to be, and Gaston's son was enough to make him wary_. Uma snorted a little, vindictive pleasure coursing through her, before she suppressed it with a sigh. It wouldn't do to be sent back to the Isle, leaving Harry and Gil to fend for themselves. She didn't exactly trust the other VKs to take good care of them.

Mal was standing next to Ben, her face blank. When she caught sight of Uma, her lips curled back into a snarl involuntarily before she smoothed her features out, looking like the picture-perfect Lady of the Court (one who was dressed in a mix of preppy and punk clothes and had purple hair).

While Ben made his goodwill speech, Uma and eyes only on Mal, who continued looking at her in a mistrustful way. As Ben began to lead them toward their dorms, Mal pulled back a little and grabbed her arm, yanking her to a stop.

"If you dare jeopardize this, _Shrimpy_ , no one in Auradon will be able to stop me from sending you right back," Mal hissed at her, eyes glowing green for good measure.

Uma scoffed and pulled her arm out of Mal's grasp. "Oh please, Princess, we'll see what you can do," Uma snarled, stopping herself from cursing the hell out of the half-fairy with the power that she could feel thrumming in her veins.

Mal raised an eyebrow, smirking at having gotten a rise out of her, then stalked away, leaving a bouncing Dizzy to jump toward her, offering to show her to her dorm. Uma allowed herself a small smile for the excitable young girl, who every VK on the Isle had a soft spot for.

 _This group of preppy Princesses and Princes will not be able to take me down. All I need to do is keep Harry and Gil safe and we'll be fine. They wouldn't like the business end of my sword anyway . . ._

Uma was forced to admit that she had to eat her words a week into her stay at Auradon. She, Harry and Gil tried to stick together as much as possible, but all of them had mostly different schedules with none of them sharing a single class all three of them, so it was rather difficult during the school hours.

To top it off, she was on the hit list of what seemed like every single person at the dumb school. Evie, Jay and Carlos stayed away from all three of them, throwing them wary looks whenever they were near, and Dude positively _fled_ upon seeing them, remembering them from their altercation aboard the _Lost Revenge_. Jay, admittedly, often looked like he wanted to exchange words with them, but was always stopped by Evie or Carlos.

On top of that, it seemed like she didn't particularly have to lok after Harry and Gil. They hadn't been visible when she had attempted to love spell Ben, and neither of them had anyone who had a grudge against them especially. Peter Pan was a Lost Boy, after all, Tinker Bell was a fairy living in Neverland, and Wendy's children were too young to attend Auradon Prep. The son of the rival of Gil's father had invited them into Auradon, and Ben was a rather selfless sort. He even attempted to make conversation with Gaston's son, so he was far from hostile.

Uma, however, was the villain who had almost destroyed Cotillion and taken over Auradon. People had not forgotten her fight with Mal and a lot of people had taken great offence to the fact that she had even been allowed back when she had so clearly shown herself to be nothing more than a _villain_.

When she was with Harry and Gil, it was easier to ignore the stares that burned into her and the whispers she was faced with at every turn. But alone, she could see every single hateful glance sent her way and hear every whisper about how she didn't deserve to be in Auradon, how Ben ever thought that this was a good idea, how she was going to kill them all the moment their backs were turned.

Uma was sick of it, to say the least.

Things came to a head early one morning, about a week after she arrived in Auradon. Uma was used to confrontaion; it was the way of the Isle, and she was ready for a fight. She might be used to hateful looks, but she was also used to the ability to take the person in front of her down in a fight. Here, she couldn't fight, and it left her seething and angry she couldn't do anything.

So when she got tripped over on her way to a class, she instantly turned with a barb on her tongue and fingers reaching for a weapon that wasn't there, to be faced with a snarling princess: Audrey.

"What the hell do you want?" Uma demanded, itching for a fight.

"To send you back to the Isle, of course," Audrey sniffed, looking disdainfully down at Uma. Uma felt fury rise in her and she forced it down, the word Isle knocking something loose in her. She knew that if she went back to the Isle emptyhanded again, Ursula would not forgive her; she would be dead the moment her feet touched land. She instead set about collecting the things that got knocked on the ground, keeping her lips tightly pressed together and shaking with fury.

"Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos don't deserve to be here, but you are even less worthy than them, which is saying something," Audrey said over Uma's head; Uma gritted her teeth but continued collecting her belongings.

"You are the worst type of person, I can't believe that Ben allowed you here," Audrey continued. At this point, Uma had enough of listening to the prissy girl in front of her.

"You listen here, punk," Uma snarled, pointing her finger at the other girl's head. "You do not mess with me, or I'll –"

"Or you'll what, Uma?" Audrey asked, suddenly coy. "Who do you think everyone will believe? _Princess_ Audrey, daughter of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip, or Uma, daughter of Ursula and a villain who had already tried to take over Auradon once?"

She let out an airy laugh that skyrocketed Uma's anger yet left her feeling grudging respect for the tactics of the girl in front of her. Half of the VKs wouldn't be able to come up with plans such as the so-called 'good' girl.

"Try what you want, Uma, I'll be happy if you do," Audrey smirked and began to walk off, stamping on Uma's homework for the next class on her way out. At least, until a voice stopped her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Audrey," Mal said, stepping out from behind a pillar, eyes already glowing green. Audrey took a step backward in alarm.

"I heard every single thing you said, and who do you think people will believe? Audrey, a prissy pink princess from Auradon, or Mal, Lady of the Court, the girl from the Isle that defeated Maleficant and Uma?" Mal smirked, watching in glee as Audrey's face lost all colour. She quirked her eyebrow, and Audrey hastened away from them, leaving a shocked Uma to be helped up by Evie, who had appeared out of nowhere.

Mal took in Uma's stunned expression and her face softened slightly. She bent down to pick up the homework that Audrey stamped on, dusted it off and handed it to Uma.

"Don't look so surprised, Shrimpy," Mal smirked, grabbing a few papers from Evie's hands as the girl stumbled for her phone as it began to ring. "I may hate your guts, but Auradon folk don't diss a VK without retribution from the rest of us."

Evie smiled at Uma warily, but backed up Mal's words. "If we don't stick together, no one sticks with us."

Mal tapped Evie's elbow, and they both started making their way to where they needed to be, neither of them turning to look back at Uma as they continued their conversation. As they rounded a corner, Mal yelled out, "I still hate you!" and flipped Uma the finger, then disappeared.

Uma stood in shock for a while, then smirked a little before securing her hold on her things. The smirk turned genuine for a moment as she looked at the corner the other two girls had just turned to, then turned and walked towards the other end of the corridor, a soft look persisting on her face and gratitude she didn't want to show welling up inside.

She looked down at her phone, realised she was extremely late for class, sighed and wiped her face of any emotions. Continuing to walk, she too rounded the corner and disappeared.


End file.
